high-hazard dams Archives - Friends of the Eel River

Risks Soar, Bills Come Due as 20th-Century Dams Crumble

May 10, 2017March 8, 2017

First part of a series. For nearly 50 years, Oroville Dam has been the linchpin of a sprawling state plumbing system that draws water from wet Northern California to 25 million people and thousands of acres of farmland in the arid south. That changed Feb. 7 when a crater as large as a football field … Read more

In Peril at Oroville Dam, a Parable on Infrastructure

May 8, 2017February 14, 2017

California officials have ordered the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream from the Oroville Dam because overflowing waters could erode the dam’s two spillways and cause devastating flooding. Yet when public interest groups warned of such a threat in 2005, state and federal officials rejected their call to line one spillway with concrete, saying it … Read more